“Austin” co-creator and director Darren Ashton, mid-treatment for bowel cancer
How Darren Ashton’s Cancer Fight Shaped the Heart of ‘Austin’
Darren Ashton, the co-creator and director of “Austin,” the show that has fast become one of Australia’s most beloved series, was undergoing cancer treatment during its creation.
Starring “Love on the Spectrum” favourite Michael Theo, the TV show was swiftly picked up by UK public service broadcaster juggernaut, the BBC, thanks to its ingenious blend of British and Australian humour. However, as the ‘warm core comedy’ was being filmed just over a year ago, its linchpin was receiving chemotherapy.
Speaking to Variety AU/NZ for both a candid account of the experience and earlier for the Variety AU/NZ podcast, Ashton says it he was diagnosed following a routine health check.
“A close colleague of mine, First Assistant Director JC (John Clabburn), had a sudden heart attack one weekend while trimming the hedges at his house and died later at hospital. It was out of the blue — he was young and fit and funny,” recalls Ashton.
“A shock like that jolts you and I decided to have a men’s health check — it was a few years overdue from my last one. Everything was normal, except for a small indication of blood in one of three stool samples — I know that sounds graphic but I have to talk about poo as I was diagnosed with bowel cancer shortly after.”
A lesion was found on Ashton’s bowel following a colonoscopy.
When his wife Carolyn picked him up from the day surgery, she was the first person he told.
“I hopped in the car, a bit groggy from the anaesthetic still I think, and she asked how it went and I simply said, ‘I’ve got cancer’. Carolyn nodded, put the car in gear and we drove out of the carpark.
“We sat in silence for a few minutes — what you discover as you head down the cancer treatment road is that there’s a lot of processing, not just for the patient but for the family and friends.
“Anyway, a few minutes later, I said, ‘We better call the girls’; our two daughters. That was a tough phone call for both of us. We were in the car, on speaker, with no real answers other than I had a cancerous lesion in my lower bowel.”
Ashton says the following days after the initial diagnosis were a whirlwind of emotion and appointments for scans, blood tests, and briefings with surgeons. He avoided general google searches, and stuck to reading science-based articles and information from official organisations like Bowel Cancer Australia (BCA). He also joined the BCA’s closed Facebook group.
“BCA was like this lighthouse in the middle of the ocean,” he says.
Darren Ashton said it was his diagnosis with bowel cancer that shaped “Austin”
“You reassess your life and you do an inventory and I just thought to myself, what do I wanna leave on my Epitaph?,” he said on the Variety AU/NZ podcast.
“’He made a snarky comedy about a family’ or ‘He made a beautiful warm core comedy that made people feel a bit better about the world in which they lived’.”
View this post on Instagram
“Austin” notably doesn’t feature any comedy at the expense of other characters, and no profanity. As far as warm core narrative comedies go, it’s up there with shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Black Books” in terms of feel-good quirky characters and dialogue.
“It was just about having an ethos that informs the show and has a tone and no snarky comedy and particularly no ‘put down comedy’,” says Ashton.
“I find ‘put down comedy’ can be quite popular, particularly in this climate at the moment […]. You do an audit of your life and you jettison things and you go, ‘What is really important?.’”
Filmed in Canberra and London, “Austin” follows popular children’s author Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller), his illustrator wife Ingrid (Sally Phillips) and Austin, the neurodivergent son that Julian never knew existed.
DNA tests, awkward family dinners and flirty moments follow, and Austin finds himself in the U.K. on a journey that he describes as the “single best thing I’ve ever done.”
“There’s a photo I’ve got that one of the nurses took of me when I was going through chemo and I’m with my laptop — they had really fast wi-fi in the oncology unit and it was crazy, it was faster than home — and I’m working. I was reviewing the scripts and giving notes. Todd and Rebecca from the ABC were sending through stuff and I just remember thinking it was something positive to look forward to.”
Darren Ashton receiving treatment for cancer while reading scripts for “Austin”
Ashton placed multiple projects on hold to focus on “Austin”
“I did jettison some projects, as well as people out of my life,” he says. “It sounds brutal, but cancer has been one of the most life affirming experiences of my personal and professional career, it gave me focus. Which brings me to ‘Austin’. It became a priority. We had all the elements – great cast, excellent script, the ABC. But the big motivator for me was Michael Theo.
“Here was a talented young man at a crossroads in his life, working in a cabinet making factory sanding doors, but with so much more to offer. Michael has this great outlook on life which echoed where I was or wanted to be during the whole cancer shenanigans. I thought, what would I like to leave this earth having done? ‘Austin’ was the answer.”
Not only was Michael Theo the motivator throughout the process of creating “Austin,” Darren Ashton noted the “Love on the Spectrum” favourite was the direct inspiration for the show.
“I think Michael came into everybody’s lives in “Love on the Spectrum.” He had a great charismatic presence. That’s the bottom line. You were drawn to him probably above all others,” said Ashton on the Variety AU/NZ podcast.
“Ben [Miller] and I had done a film together and we’ve been talking about doing something together for a while and I showed him that opening sequence and I said, ‘What do you think about this idea that this neurodivergent young man knocks on your door and says, I’m your son from a fling you had with my mother 28 years ago?’.”
“That segment and of course Michael throughout the whole of season one [of “Love on the Spectrum”], really inspired the show. There’s no question about it.”
Darren Ashton received 251 days of treatment, including three surgeries and 30 Litres of chemotherapy chemicals through his body — yes, he counted.
Now, just over 12 months later, he’s in the clear. Two days after he wrapped filming “Austin” in Canberra, he was labelled with the official term for his current health condition: NED – no evidence of disease.
“Austin” co-creator and director Darren Ashton, in hospital for his second surgery following the discovery of a cancerous lesion in his lower bowel
In a Facebook post he shared with the BCA closed community group, he included the note:
It is with humility and the deepest respect to others still on the long and winding road that I offer up my positive story. It’s been just over a year since the whirlwind diagnosis, surgery to remove a third of my bowel, 6 months of chemo and numerous check ups and scans, to find myself clear of disease and with no sign of complications.
So, I write this primarily for those freshly diagnosed with bowel cancer, with all the worry, thirst for knowledge and understanding, uncertainty and emotional turmoil, I trust my experience offers some proof of hope.